Stand-up comic returning to Winthrop High School for show this weekend

The current Winthrop High School was built more than 10 years ago, but it still will feel new when Kelly MacFarland, a stand-up comedian, takes the stage there this weekend.

MacFarland, a 1990 graduate of Winthrop High, has told jokes across the nation, on cable television and even overseas. She now lives in the Boston area.

Winthrop native Kelly MacFarland, shown during a recent performance in Massachusetts, will be back in Maine on Saturday to perform as part of a comedy show fundraiser for the Winthrop High School class of 2021. Contributed photo

Kelly MacFarland

But she’ll be returning to Rambler Road on Saturday to deliver an adults-only comedy performance set in the Winthrop Performing Arts Center — a space she hasn’t entered since its construction in the mid-aughts.

The show, which will cost $20 for admission and begin at 8 p.m., is a benefit for the Winthrop High School class of 2021. Its proceeds will fund an alcohol-free graduation party for that class, through a program called Project Graduation.

“I will not be holding back,” said MacFarland, whose material can be bawdy and self-deprecating.

First she jokes about taking the ring from her grandmother. Then, almost reluctantly, MacFarland announces what the audience has been expecting: that she recently got married.

She imagines an awkward interaction with someone who has heard the news.

“I’m an older bride,” MacFarland says. “First time getting married, yeah. People don’t know what to say. I’m in my 40s, so people go, ‘I heard … that you got married.'”

MacFarland imitates the crinkled expression on the person’s face, then imagines asking the person why it looks as though she has just smelled dog excrement.

“‘No, I’m happy for you,'” the person assures her, still cringing.

MacFarland then describes buying an inexpensive wedding dress, with the punch line that she’ll probably spill a meatball down the front of it during the reception.

“I’m thrifty and I’m a spiller,” she says.

MacFarland began her comedy career in 1998. She attended the University of Southern Maine and performed at the now-closed Portland Comedy Connection.

For many years, she has been living in the Boston area and working as a professional comic.

In addition to delivering stand-up, she also has recorded two albums, is writing a collection of stories and performs with the ImprovBoston National Touring Company.

“That’s God’s work,” she said of the improvisational group, which holds workshops for children and nonprofit organizations. “That’s the work I do during the day. Then at night, I’m in smelly clubs with drunk people, telling jokes. I’ve got a good balance of an angel and a devil on both shoulders.”

Much of MacFarland’s material comes from her own life, she said, and it has matured as both she and her fans have gotten older.

While her first album included many jokes about being a single woman living in Boston, she now has moved to the suburb of Natick and lives there with her husband and stepson.

In her stand-up, she speaks fondly of them, but also complains about their smelliness and pokes fun at the Boy Scout uniform her husband wears to his son’s meetings. In her latest album, she also thanks them “for all the new material.”

“They knew what they were getting,” she said. “They understood it all comes from love.”

Looking forward to this weekend’s show, MacFarland said that “it’s a bargain” for anyone who has not seen live comedy before and would like to support a good cause.

MacFarland will be joined by two comedians from elsewhere in New England, Dan Crohn and Carolyn Plummer Burbank.

Tickets can be bought at locations around town, including Pepper’s Garden & Grill, Winthrop Area Federal Credit Union and Dave’s Appliance. They also are available from the eighth-graders who will become members of the high school class graduating in 2021.

Though MacFarland has been working in comedy awhile, she said, she’ll still be recognizable to her fellow Ramblers.

Since her show was announced, she said, “People who I’ve known from 20 years ago have been reaching out on social media. I’m still the same girl. Maybe a little smarter and older and wiser, but I’m still just Kelly from Winthrop, Maine.”

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